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Green Bay Packers: 'Fail Mary' rematch starts season with a bang

By Tom SilversteinMilwaukee Journal Sentinel

Posted:
04/24/2014 12:01:00 AM CDT

Updated:
04/24/2014 07:59:41 AM CDT

Seattle wide receiver Golden Tate (81) wrestles with Green Bay cornerback M.D. Jennings (43) after making a catch in the end zone to defeat the Packers 14-12 on a controversial call by the officials on September 24, 2012 in Seattle, Washington. (Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images)

The Green Bay Packers won't soon forget their agonizing 2012 loss to the Seattle Seahawks that cemented the fate of the replacement referees and became known across the country as the "Fail Mary" game.

Not only won't they forget it, they'll be hearing about it from now until Sept. 4 because the NFL schedule-makers decided to give the Packers a shot at avenging the loss on the same night the Seahawks' home crowd will be honoring its Super Bowl team.

The kickoff opener is a Thursday night bouquet the NFL throws to the reigning champions, who get to open their season in front of their home fans and try to make sacrificial lambs of the poor souls chosen to oppose them.

"It's a tremendous opportunity for our football team," coach Mike McCarthy said in comments distributed by the team. "We have experience playing in the kickoff opener three years ago, and we will draw on that.

"Obviously, being the visiting team this time presents new challenges. It will help sharpen our focus even more during training camp and the preseason."

There's little question that the subject of the 14-12 loss in Week 3 of the 2012 season will be brought up over and over as the Packers prepare to open the season. Memories of receiver Golden Tate and safety M.D. Jennings fighting for the ball as replacement officials made two different calls will be fresh on everyone's minds.

"This game won't be about the past," McCarthy said. "It will be about the 2014 Green Bay Packers."

McCarthy has a point.

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Neither Tate nor Jennings is with his respective team and the Packers are chasing the Seahawks for NFC supremacy instead of the other way around. The Packers will be going to CenturyLink Field to pull off an upset.

The Packers have the 13th-most difficult schedule based on the winning percentage of their opponents last year (.504). That ranking doesn't always translate into an accurate gauge of how the season will go.

As is usually the case, the Packers will be showcased a lot on national television, appearing four other times provided one of their Sunday night games is not moved to the afternoon under the NFL's flexible schedule system. A year ago they were scheduled to be on national television four times, but two of their games were moved when quarterback Aaron Rodgers got hurt.

The Packers are one of eight teams with five national TV appearances. The games are:

-- Thursday, Sept. 4, at Seattle, 7:30 p.m., NBC

-- Thursday, Oct. 2, Minnesota, 7:25 p.m., CBS/NFL Network

-- Sunday, Oct. 26, at New Orleans, 7:30 p.m., NBC

-- Sunday, Nov. 9, Chicago, 7:30 p.m., NBC

-- Monday, Dec. 8, Atlanta, 7:30 p.m., ESPN

The night games will present challenges for McCarthy in getting his team prepared for the odd schedule they'll be following. He has stressed how important routine is to a football team, but twice the team will prepare with a short week and twice it will go from playing a night game one week to a noon game the next.

Despite that, McCarthy said he's happy for the team's vast fan base that the broadcasts will be so widespread.

"It's an honor," McCarthy said. "I know our fans around the world always appreciate the chance to watch us on national TV. Playing under the lights always adds to the atmosphere at Lambeau Field, and on the road."

Nothing will be more challenging than the three-game stretch in which the Packers play each of their NFC North opponents in 12 days. It starts with a noon game at Detroit on Sunday, Sept. 21, continues with a noon game at Chicago on Sunday, Sept. 28, and concludes with the Thursday night game against the Vikings.

That means half the division slate will be completed by Week 5. If the Packers stumble out of the gate, they could find themselves buried in the standings early.

"Two of our division opponents have new head coaches, so that's an added challenge, but division games always carry extra importance, no matter when they're played," McCarthy said. "We played three in a row late in the season two years ago, and that was a key stretch in our season. This will be no different."

The Packers, who had an early bye last year, will get it right in the middle of the season after eight games, which McCarthy said is ideal. Down the stretch, the Packers play five of eight games at home, including four of five coming out of the bye.

It starts with the Sunday night home game against the Bears on Nov. 9 and features Sunday games against Philadelphia, at Minnesota and New England before finishing up with the Monday night game against Atlanta.

"That's a potential plus, but we have to be in position to take advantage of it," McCarthy said. "That will be the third quarter of our season and it will be important to make the most of playing at home during that stretch."

As always, the Gold season-ticket package holders (Milwaukee) get home games No. 2 and 5. In this case, it will be the Thursday night game against Minnesota and the Eagles game Nov. 16 (noon).

The Packers know what it's like to open the season as Super Bowl champions. They did it in 2011, hosting the New Orleans Saints in a Thursday night game that came down to a Packers goal-line stand on the final play of the game.

The NFL went to a Thursday night opener in 2002, but it wasn't until 2004 that it had the defending Super Bowl champion host it every season. The only exception was last year, when Baltimore had to play on the road because of a conflict with the Baltimore Orioles, who play right next to the Ravens downtown.

Since the inception of the Thursday opener, the defending champs have won eight of the nine times the game was played at their stadium. In fact, no team had won on the road until the Dallas Cowboys upset the New York Giants, 24-17, on Sept. 5, 2012 at MetLife Stadium, ending a string of eight straight for the champs.

In playing the Seahawks, the Packers will be traveling to the loudest stadium in the NFL and a den of ineptitude for most of Seattle's opponents. The Seahawks won 14 straight games at home over a two-year period under quarterback Russell Wilson, finally losing in Week 16 last year, 17-10, to the Arizona Cardinals.

Among their victories last year at CenturyLink Field were blowouts against San Francisco, Minnesota, New Orleans and St. Louis. They finished their home schedule with playoff victories over the Saints and 49ers on their way to the Super Bowl.

The worst travel segment of the schedule for the Packers is in December, when they play at Buffalo on Dec. 14 and at Tampa Bay on Dec. 21. Their only other back-to-back road games are with the Lions and Bears in Weeks 3-4.

The preseason schedule also was finalized. The teams and sites had been announced, but only the Oakland Raiders game on at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 22, at Lambeau Field had a date and time.

The Packers will open at Tennessee on Saturday, Aug. 9, at 7 p.m., then play a rare Saturday day game at St. Louis on Aug. 16 (3 p.m.). The Raiders game, which is Gold package, follows and the schedule concludes with Kansas City on Thursday, Aug. 28, at 6 p.m.